In recent years, the police have dropped several cases. This is partly because of staff shortages and partly because the case is not promising enough to bring to a successful conclusion. Most of the cases the police dropped last year were cybercrime and scam cases.
This is according to figures requested by NOS.
Last year, nearly 32,000 cases were terminated early due to insufficient staffing. In addition, another 26,000 cases were set aside because police felt they had too little chance of a successful outcome.
Most of the cases that remained last year were related to cybercrime and online fraud. Because the perpetrators are often abroad, there is little chance that they will be dealt with. In addition, it may not take a disproportionate amount of time and energy to track down and arrest the perpetrators.
It succeeded in apprehending a suspect in only 6 percent of cybercrime cases.
The police have a limited budget, officers and detectives to investigate cases. That means hard knots sometimes have to be cut. "The reality is that we always have more cases than we can handle," Hanneke Ekelmans, a member of the National Police force leadership, told NOS.
She continues her story, "In addition, cases have become increasingly complex in recent years. They require more time and therefore you can handle fewer cases with the same number of people. Of course, we would prefer to see this differently, but it is true."
In the Eastern Netherlands, East Brabant and Rotterdam, staff shortages and too small a budget caused most cases to end prematurely. It is striking that in these regions the police manage to track down a suspect more often than in other parts of the country. They say this is due to selection. The better reports are selected in advance, the more effectively available investigative capacity can be used to solve cases.
"The trick for us is to make the best choices with the capacity we have and get the most out of it," Ekelmans said.
According to the latest edition of the Central Bureau of Statistics' (CBS) Cybersecurity Monitor, the number of victims of cybercrime increased sharply between 2012 and 2021. During this period, the number of victims increased by almost a quarter (22.1 percent).
The proportion of purchase fraud - where someone buys a product over the Internet, but never gets anything delivered - rose the hardest at 118.6 percent. Sales fraud - where a seller delivers products but is not paid - finished in second place with a 64.7 percent percentage increase.
The number of victims of hacking and identity fraud has been declining since 2012, by 5.4 percent and 58.3 percent, respectively. In recent years, researchers do see a slight increase in the number of identity fraud victims.
